


status of things

by RinPin (heartattacked)



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Character Study, Post-Canon, dialogue practice, so vague much no context
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 09:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13633551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartattacked/pseuds/RinPin
Summary: small talk and coffee cups.





	status of things

**Author's Note:**

> *finds this in the crevices of my google drive* *blows off the dust* *sees that it's worthless and chucks it in the garbage* enjoy

“I suppose if you had to say…” Akashi pauses, aware of his own absurdity. “I am learning to trust again.”

 

Nijimura sputters a little. Akashi’s lips twist into his coffee.

 

“What the hell does that mean, kid?”

 

The retired emperor sets his coffee down on the counter, letting his arms stretch into rays of sun across the marble island top.

 

“This is all...psychology, and..." he starts, tilting his head. "When a child takes its first breath of air, it begins to trust. The child sets a foot onto the world, the world holds it up. The child opens its eyes, and the world provides something to see. It’s balance in the most primitive form.”

 

(Nijimura, who's learned to let Akashi talk his thoughts through by himself, stares at him over the most expensive coffee mug he’s ever held, grimacing at the bitterness.)

 

“Though I suppose—” Akashi reconsiders. “That first the child first must learn to trust itself. It must rely on its legs to carry its weight, on its naivety to keep its sights pure. After that, growing up turns into a spiral of learning what will hold you up and what will not. My mother always...her leniency was a great source of trust for me. She had no shame in devoting herself to raising me, but had no doubts in letting me off on my own. By association, anything my mother believed I could trust, I could trust."

 

A moment ensues, starting with some chirps of a morning bird and ending with a door closing somewhere in the house.

 

When Akashi doesn't resume, visage glazed and somewhere away from here, Nijimura sets the cup down. “But your dad doesn't have that?"

 

Akashi _hmms_ , gaze flickering between Nijimura's mug and that other place. "Trust is worthless when it revolves around some...idealism of perfection. If faultlessness crumbles, so does the world beneath you."

 

Nijimura figures that's the end of the puzzle piecing as Akashi meets his eyes again.

 

"That sounds like you."

 

Akashi perks up, leaning forward on his elbow. “Does it?”

 

Nijimura, not uncaringly, shrugs. “You’ve had everything that was taught to you change in just a short time. Losing trust is natural.”

 

“You’re very perceptive, Nijimura-san.”

 

“Nah. I just like being near you,” says Nijimura, without thinking (obviously). “And you like to verbalize.”

 

After a second of processing, Akashi flushes, fingers twirling together and untwirling. “Regardless, you have always been able to understand what I need, even if you didn't understand why.”

 

“I never said I’d psychoanalyze you.” Nijimura mutters. “I know how you play basketball. That says enough.”

 

Akashi frowns, shoulders going slack as he leans back. "What do you mean?"

 

“You..." Something like peach and rose paints its way onto Nijimura's cheeks. He'd always struggled to keep up with Akashi’s eloquent style of speech. "You're always one of the shortest players on the court, but - don't look at me like that - but you're also the tallest, right? The way you hold that ball...it’s...weird. Complicated.”

 

Akashi’s staring, too closely resembling a fallen bird, hopping from one side of the sidewalk to the other, waiting quietly for a helping hand. Nijimura straightens up, all the sudden feeling trapped in spotlight.

 

“Like...uh,” he scratches the back of his neck. “It was a crown. You know...like it was made of gold. At the same time, though...like you were tending to a garden. I could never tell if the ball was heavy or light around you. Like you didn't trust it.”

 

Akashi takes a deep breath in. “Interesting.”

 

Nijimura exhales. “Yeah.”

 

A slow breeze comes through the window, and the door upstairs reopens.


End file.
